California State Highway Routes

In addition to my interest in historic US highways, I also have an affinity for state highways, especially historical ones. This page will have links to specialized details about state highways and will contain in-depth information about various state highways that I have found interesting. This page is designed to neither supplant nor compete with the three excellent California State Highways pages. Rather, it will supplement my US Highways page as well as Andy Field's page about San Diego area highways. This page will emphasize the state highways under construction in San Diego County and the new toll roads now mostly complete in Orange County. It will also complement the US highways page by giving descriptions of historic state highways.

California state highways have an even longer history than the US highways. California started numbering routes as early as 1897 with the inception of Legislative Route 11¹. Gradually, more legislative routes were added, but the numbers existed only on paper. In 1928, the US highway system in California started to be signed by the two Automobile Clubs² and these routes gradually superseded the named trails and highways. By 1934, the California Division of Highways realized the value of signed numbered routes and the system of signed routes was initiated³. In 1964, a major renumbering of state routes occured to reconcile the legislative numbers with the sign numbers. Today there are almost 300 numbered routes in the state, with some being as short as one mile while others, like Route 1, cover most of the length of the state.

Table of Contents

• History. Article from 1934 California Highways and Public Works detailing the start of signed state routes.

• Orange County Toll Roads

• San Diego Area State Highways

San Diego Area State Highways

Highway 56 By the year 2010, if all goes according to plan, Highway 56 will comprise an important link in San Diego's freeway and expressway system. It will ultimately go from I-5, just south of Del Mar to Highway 67, to the east of Poway. Currently it is a "stub freeway" with two sections near I-5 and I-15, but with no middle.

Highway 252 (Deceased) Highway 252 was to be a freeway connecting I-5 and I-805 just south of Downtown San Diego. It was never built due to opposition from the neighborhood through which it would have passed. In 1994 this routing was ultimately deleted from the state highway system. Its legacy is a huge interchange now signed "43rd St. Exit" on I-805 and a littered swath of land cutting through Barrio Logan.

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Last Update: January 7, 1998
If you have any questions or  comments or if you have any updates, please email me: casey@gbcnet.com

http://www.gbcnet.com/roads/state.html

^1. Daniel Faigin, California State Highways Page.
^2. Brian Smith, California Traffic Signs
^3. California Division of Highways. "State Routes will be Numbered and Marked by Distinctive Bear Signs." California Highways and Public Works (1934).